Effect of mutagen ethyl methane sulfonate on growth characters of tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) cv. Prajwal

Abstract

The present study was carried out at experimental orchard of Department of Horticulture Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, the treatments included five concentrations of EMS (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 %) and with three dipping durations (5minutes, 4 hours and 8 hours) resulting in 15 treatments laid out in RBD. The results showed that with treatment of bulbs with EMS the number of days taken to initiation of sprouting, complete sprouting, days to spike emergence decreased at lower concentration of EMS (0.25 %) but at higher doses they delayed the initiation parameters. The lower doses (0.25 % EMS) also increased plant height, number of leaves, decreased length of leaves while higher doses increased length of leaves and reduced number of leaves and plant height. The dipping duration of 8 hours was found effective to increase plant height, number of leaves and reduce length of leaves. The interaction effect was found highest in treatment combination 0.25 % EMS with 8 hours dipping duration for growth parameters. The interaction effect was non-significant for days to complete sprouting, spike emergence and plant height.